Jolada Rotti Oota is a North Karnataka Thali that has jowar roti, spicy curries and condiments along with salads and sweets. North Karnataka style soppina palya or muddi palya is a curry made with a single variety or mixed green leafy vegetables like amaranthus, spinach, methi or dill (sabasige).

The third part of my "North Karnataka Jolada Rotti Oota" series is here. Today I am sharing the recipe for Soppina Palya or Muddi Palya.

"North Karnataka Jolada Rotti Oota" refers to the "thali" or plate meal presented in the photo above. It is a popular meal in the northern regions of the state of Karnataka. The Jowar Roti or Jolada Rotti, that I shared on Tuesday, is the star of the meal. These gluten free, vegan and oil free flatbreads are made from jowar or sorghum millet and if made well, totally melt in your mouth. The bland rotti is always served with spicy sides like Yennegai, Soppina Palya and Kaalu Palya.

Soppu refers to any green leafy vegetable like spinach, amaranthus (harive soppu/ dantina soppu) , methi (fenugreek) or dill leaves (sabasige). This curry can be made with either mixed greens or just a single type of greens. It is one of the simplest curries on the plate. To make the curry, you need to cook the greens until they are completely done, even overcooked works fine. You can pressure cook them too. It has minimal spices, just turmeric powder and red chilli powder. You can add garam masala or any other spice mix you want to enhance the taste.

There are different variations of the muddi palya, this recipe uses gram flour (besan) or chickpea flour in it. You can also use cooked toor dal (pigeon pea lentils) instead. The quantities in the recipe below are just guidelines, adjust them to your taste. Add more besan or dal if you want to increase the quantity of the curry or if you just enjoy the taste. Besan will make a thicker curry than dal. Add water as per your requirements.

My mom always added peanuts to the curry, so I continue to do so. If you are allergic or if you don't like peanuts, you can skip them. You can replace them with fresh tuvar also.

If you made this recipe, let me know! Leave a comment here or on Facebook, tag your tweet with @oneteaspoonlife on Twitter and don't forget to tag your photo #oneteaspoonoflife on Instagram. You can also email me at onetspoflife@gmail.com I'd love to see what you are upto.

If you like this recipe, do not forget to share it with your friends and family!

Soppina Palya | Mixed Greens Curry | Muddi Palya Recipe

North Karnataka style soppina palya or muddi palya is a curry made with a single variety or mixed green leafy vegetables like amaranthus, spinach, methi or dill (sabasige). It is traditionally served with Jolada Rotti or Jowar Roti.

Method:

1. Heat the oil in a large pan and add finely chopped onions.2. Once the onions have turned translucent, add the peanuts and saute for 1-2 minutes.3. Add the chopped green leafy vegetables and 0.5 cup of water. Cover and cook until the greens are completely done. You can either use just one variety of greens or a mixture of what is available.4. Add salt, turmeric powder and red chilli powder. For added taste, you can add garam masala too.5. If using besan, mix the besan in 1 cup of cool water until there are no lumps and add to the curry. Stir immediately and add 1 cup more water as the besan will immediately thicken. Add more water if you want a thinner curry.6. If using dal, add the dal and mix.7. Adjust seasoning and spices as per taste.8. Simmer on low heat until the raw taste of the besan is gone or for 5-8 minutes.9. Serve hot with jolada rotti or wholewheat rotis.

Jolada Rotti Oota is a North Karnataka Thali that has jowar roti, spicy curries and condiments along with salads and sweets. Yennegai is a spicy stuffed baby eggplant curry made by simmering eggplants in a peanut based gravy.

"North Karnataka Jolada Rotti Oota" refers to the "thali" or plate meal presented in the photo above. It is a popular meal in the northern regions of the state of Karnataka. The Jowar Roti or Jolada Rotti, that I shared on Tuesday, is the star of the meal. These gluten free, vegan and oil free flatbreads are made from jowar or sorghum millet and if made well, totally melt in your mouth. The bland rotti is always served with spicy sides like this Yennegai.

Yennegai is a curry that is made by stuffing eggplants with a spicy peanut mixture and slow cooking them until done in the peanut masala.

If you are lucky, you will find these baby eggplants or brinjals and you can stuff them directly. While using brinjals, always check for worms and discard those that have them. If you can't find baby eggplants, you can make the recipe by just dicing a big eggplant into bite sized chunks. In that case, you can skip the step of stuffing the eggplants with the spicy peanut mixture.

It tastes fabulous with wholewheat rotis or naans too. If you want to eat it with rice, you can make a thinner gravy.

If you made this recipe, let me know! Leave a comment here or on Facebook, tag your tweet with @oneteaspoonlife on Twitter and don't forget to tag your photo #oneteaspoonoflife on Instagram. You can also email me at onetspoflife@gmail.com I'd love to see what you are upto.

If you like this recipe, do not forget to share it with your friends and family!

Method:

1. Make two slits lengthwise on the eggplant. Do not cut all the way through. 2. Heat 2 tsp oil in a pan and saute the eggplants for 7-8 minutes until they are slightly soft.3. Powder the peanuts and add garam masala, red chilli powder, turmeric powder, salt, tamarind pulp and jaggery and mix well. Taste and adjust spices and seasoning as required. 4. Stuff the sauteed eggplants with the peanut mixture. Keep the excess peanut mixture aside.5. Add the remaining oil to the same pan and add in finely chopped onions and curry leaves. Fry until the onions turn golden brown.6. Place the eggplants in the pan and add the remaining peanut mixture.7. Add water and mix well. To get a thick gravy, add 1 cup of water. To get a thinner gravy, add more.8. Simmer on low heat until the eggplants are done, stirring occasionally.9. Dust your kitchen counter with dry flour and dip the ball of dough in it.10. Adjust seasoning as per taste.11. Remove from heat and garnish with chopped coriander leaves.12. Serve hot with jolada rotti or wholewheat rotis.

There is nothing worse than having to work on a day as cold, humid and lazy as today. Well, may be getting stuck on an island with no chocolate is worse, but hey, let's stick to reality.

There is also something about cold rainy days that gets my appetite worked up. I'm always HUNGRY... Well, I'm "always" hungry most other times as well, but this rainy day hunger is different. It is just not my stomach, but my heart and my head as well that craves all sorts of deep fried goodness and endless cups of piping hot tea.

I know deep fried food is bad especially when I've missed 4 days of my workout. The first was justified, I was super tired and my back ached. But the other 3 days were just plain laziness and excuses. So no matter how much the heart or the head craves, I let my guilty conscience take over and snacked on this Savory Puffed Rice (Murmura Chiwda | Churmuri Chiwda | Bhadang | Khara Kadle Puri) the whole day with at least 3 cups of tea.

I've always loved Savory Puffed Rice,what's not ot love in it? It's crispy, it's light, it is spicy without being overpowering, and the best part - Peanuts, I make sure every handful has a minimum of 2 peanuts in it.

Savory Puffed Rice | Murmura Chiwda | Churmuri Chiwda | Bhadang | Khara Kadle Puri is plain salted puffed rice that has been mixed with a tempering of mustard seeds, curry leaves, peanuts, fried gram, dry red chillies, turmeric powder, salt and a little bit of sugar. See how easy that is? The list of ingredients may seem long, but the best part of making something from scratch is infact that you can omit what you don't want. Skip what you don't have. Just make sure you have turmeric and salt. A lot of people I know add a lot more ingredients like dried coconut slices or cashewnuts or fried garlic to their chiwda, but I prefer the basic one with just fried Peanuts.

The instructions to make this Savory Puffed Rice must be the shortest ever on One Teaspoon Of Life... All you need to do is, heat oil, and then add mustard seeds. Once they splutter, chuck in the peanuts and fried gram. Fry them until the peanuts are slightly browned, then add everything else and mix and pour onto the Puffed Rice or Murmura or Churmuri or Kadle Puri. Carefully (cause the oil is hot), mix everything until every grain of puffed rice is bright yellow. Initally use a spoon to mix, but later, just get your hands dirty and mix it. If you feel anything is lacking, like turmeric or you feel you need more peanuts ( I always feel I need more), just heat a little oil, add whatever is missing and pour that oil to the puffed rice and mix again.

This is just the basic snack, there is so much more you can do with it. You can use it as a base for Bhel Puri instead of plain murmura or chop up some onions, tomato and coriander, mix well and enjoy a quick fresh snack. It also makes a great travel snack - a lot of vegetarians travelling abroad usually carry it or like me, you can just snack on it when stuck in traffic on your way back from work (and you don't have to even feel guilty about it)

Store it at room temperature in an air tight box and it will easily last you 3-4 weeks.

Savory Puffed Rice is easily available at local stores, but I've found that many a times, the store bought one smells like old oil. Also, they skimp on the peanuts and load it up with dried coconut or sugar, both of which I don't enjoy. I assure you, what you make at home is definitely better than the one at the store.

There is just one thing you need to remember, use the crispiest puffed rice (murmura | churmuri | kadle puri) you can find. And preferably one that does not have sand in it. If you are based out of Bangalore, I highly recommend the one from Nilgiris, it's the best I've found till date - clean and crisp and it stays crisp longer.

Method:

Pour the puffed rice to a large bowl or onto newspapers and keep aside.Heat oil in a small pan and add the mustard seeds.Once the seeds splutter, add the dry red chillies, peanuts and the fried gram and fry until the peanuts are slightly browned.Add the curry leaves, turmeric powder and salt.Allow it to cool for 1-2 minutes and then pour onto the puffed rice. Add sugar and red chilli powder.Using a spoon mix the oil with the puffed rice until the mixture is cool enough to handle with your hands.Now using your hands, mix well until every grain of puffed rice is bright yellow.Adjust the salt and sugar as required.If you feel the need to add anything else like turmeric powder or peanuts or curry leaves, heat a little more oil and add the ingredient to it and then add it to the puffed rice. Mix well.Store at room temperature in an air tight container after it cools.

Now that Navratri is here, what are your plans? Has that gorgeous "Ghagra-Choli" come out of the wardrobe ? Did you go for Garba or Dandiya?

I'm not sure I'll ever wear a Ghagra-Choli, but dancing the Dandiya is definitely on my bucket list and I wish to cross it off soon.

You know what I enjoy about festivals in India? The colors. I love to see people dressed up in colorful attire. Colorful flowers in markets and adorning houses. Large "Pandals" where community or sarvajanik celebrations happen. The diyas or lanterns that are lit up outside houses. Beautiful Rangolis everywhere. It sets such a festive mood, you want to celebrate. What is it about festivals that excites you?

Festivals always bring good food with them. So does Navratri. A lot of people fast during Navratri where they avoid rice, wheat, meat etc. Sabudana Vada is very popular during such "upavaas" or fasting. I don't fast, I've never done so till date and considering the foodie I am, I doubt I'll ever be able to avoid food for too long. But that does not stop me from eating all the yummy snacks like Sabudana Vada. In fact, I make them very often for breakfast or tea time snacks. They disappear quicker than I can cook them.

Sabudana Vada is a popular Mahastrian snack made by frying balls of sabudana (sago), mashed potato and crushed peanuts. While traditionally, the vadas are deep fried, I pan fry them or shallow fry them.

To make the Sabudana Vada, first the sabudana needs to be soaked for around half hour and then drain out the water and leave the sabudana in a box or a covered bowl for 1-2 hours until they fluff up. Then add in the mashed boiled potato, crushed peanuts, curry leaves, chopped green chilli, chopped coriander leaves and salt and mix. Take lemon sized balls of this mixture and flatten them gently and place on a hot greased pan. Spoon in 1 tsp of oil on them and cook until one side browns, then flip and cook until the next side browns. If you are in a hurry, or you don't mind deep fried snacks, then go ahead and deep fry them and enjoy the traditional taste of Sabudana Vada.

Sabudana Vada tastes awesome with chutney or ketchup. I don't bother with either, as no one in my family cares what comes with it, as I said it disappears quicker than it appears.

If you liked this, you may also like:

Sabudana Khichdi - Another popular Maharastrian fasting meal made with the exact same ingredients as this vada.

Method:

Wash the sabudana and drain all the water. Let it rest covered for about 2 hours or until the sabudana have softened.Boil the potato and peel it.Roast the peanuts and grind into powder in the mixer.Mash the potato, add the sabudana, curry leaves,coriander and green chilies. Mix well.Add salt, red chili powder, garam masala, peanut powder and mix well.Shape into balls and flatten them gently.Heat a tava or frying pan and grease it.Place the sabudana vada hot tava and spoon around 1-1.5 tsp of Oil per vada. You may need more or less oil depending on your liking and the tava you have used. I used a non stick tava.Flip them when they brown on one side.Remove from heat once both the sides are browned.
This can be served with chutney or ketchup.

Call it what you like - Mint and Peanut Chutney or Mint Pesto, there is no doubt you will fall in love with it.

I'm sure by now you are aware of my complete and total obsession with Mint. I simply cannot get over it. While the pot in the balcony keeps spilling over with fresh Mint, I will continue to use it in my kitchen.

This Mint Peanut Chutney is a hand me down recipe. I got it from my sister Gee and she got it from her Mother-in-Law. I totally hated hand me downs when I was a kid. The books, the clothes, the toys. But I'm always open to hand me down recipes. It only means the recipe is tried, tested and loved. This one is all three and more. It is so simple and so versatile. I eat it as a chutney with Dosa, I use it as a dip for my chips, I use it as a spread on bread.

I was very excited about this post. Most of all because of my cute little mason jars. Do you see how cute they are? I've always had my eyes open for them, but they are expensive and I never found the size I liked. Finally, last weekend I got the size I wanted at a price I wanted, ain't I lucky? I had to use them in photos and this mint chutney was the perfect recipe to showcase my little jars.

Back to my Mint Peanut Chutney - because all the ingredients are cooked before grinding into a chutney, this chutney keeps well for almost 10 days in the fridge. But don't worry, it never lasts that long. It will be over in the blink of an eye.

Step by Step Instructions:

1) Wash the mint leaves thoroughly.
2) Heat oil in a pan and add the mint leaves to the pan along with slit green chillies.3) Fry for 5 minutes.

4) Add chopped tomato, peanuts and salt into the pan and cook for another 3-5 minutes. Keep stirring occasionally.7) Remove from heat and allow it to cool.8) Grind with a little water. The chutney should not be very smooth, it should be slightly coarse.

Ingredients:

Method:

Wash the mint leaves thoroughly.
Heat oil in a pan and add the mint leaves to the pan along with slit green chillies.Fry for 5 minutes.Add chopped tomato and peanuts into the pan and cook for another 3-5 minutes.Add salt.Keep stirring occasionally.Remove from heat and allow it to cool.Grind with a little water. The chutney should not be very smooth, it should be slightly coarse.Store in an airtight container in the fridge. It keeps well for 7-10 days.

Send me pics, comment on this post, tweet or share on FB if you've made this Mint Peanut Chutney. I wanna seeee.

I've been working like a crazy person for the last two months. I finally see an end in sight and I am all set for a vacation. Aah... the relaxed life. With all those late evening meetings and stress, I've barely had time to cook. Sad to say, I've barely had time to enjoy food and have been regularly cheating on my diet with take away food.

And all those burgers and dosas - my version of fast food, made me crave some nice comforting fast to make, tasty to eat and low on fat food. Isn't that a lot of expectations from food? I can be demanding at times. Well *sheepish* most of the time.

In times like these I make simple rice dishes. Mango rice or Mavinkayee Chitranna is a twist on the humble lemon rice we eat usually. The difference is that the souring agent here is raw tangy mangos as opposed to the lemon or lime. This is a zero skill recipe. All it needs is you to customize it to your taste buds. But it makes a delicious accompaniment with any gravies or like me you can enjoy it with some spicy Indian pickle and some crispy chips.

Chitranna of any kind is always better made with leftover rice. Another reason to make it?

Although, you can make it with freshly cooked and cooled rice as well.

Method:

If you don't have any leftover rice, wash and drain the uncooked rice.Cook the rice with 2 cups of water in a pressure cooker until done but not mushy. If not using a pressure cooker, cook it the way you usually cook rice until it is done.When the rice is cooked, allow it to cool before forking it.Peel the mango and remove the stone/seed. Grate it fine and keep aside.Heat oil in a large pan and add the mustard seeds.Once they splutter, add the curry leaves and peanuts and cook until the peanuts are slightly browned and cooked.Add the grated raw mango and the chopped green chillies and cook for 1-2 mins.Add turmeric powder and stir.Add the rice and salt and mix well.Garnish with chopped coriander leaves and fresh coconut.

Did you know, that India is the largest producer and consumer of chillies? And Andhra Pradesh accounts for 30% of production... No wonder when we think of Andhra food, we think spicy... It is fitting that AP has a dish showcasing their favorite hot chilli. This is generally served as an accompaniment with Biryani. Now, although, I can eat spicy food, I cannot go all the way and eat it as spicy as the Andhraites, so instead of using spicy green chillies, I stuck to using the yellow ones which are generally used to make bhajjis. I also cut them into chunks rather than use them whole, this just made it easier to eat with chapati...

Mirchi Ka Salan

Spicy Andhra curry made with chillies and peanuts. Usually served as an accompaniment to Biryani.

Same story as my Kaju Katli post. I asked hubby dearest what khara/ namkeen/ spicy snack should I make for Diwali and the reply was Nippattu. Again, I had tried this earlier and it was something I couldn't brag about. Tried it again and presto! it tasted good this time. I did struggle a little initially even this time, but I got the correct advice from multiple people and managed to salvage my nippattu mission. I was not rolling them thin enough and hence they were not cooking properly in the center giving them soft centers and crispy sides. After about 7-10 turning out soft, I took the advice and patted them out evenly and thinner and they turned out nice and crisp. The recipe made close to 40 nippattus.

Take a small ball of dough and place it on a butter paper or any other greased surface and pat it down into a disk using your fingers. The disk should be around 2mm in thickness. Make sure it is evenly thick.

Heat the oil in a kadhai for deep frying. After the oil is hot, reduce the stove to medium flame.

Deep fry the nippattu on medium flame until they are brown on both sides.

Again, this is a mandate on your banana leaf for festivals and functions. It is served on the bottom left side of your banana leaf or plate right next to the plain rice. If you are eating this for breakfast, you can make many different versions. You can add vegetables like onion, capsicum, carrots, potato or peas. You can add avarekalu or lima beans. You can add raw mango. But again, at the end of the day if this is for festival, the simplest version is served with just peanuts. This is the recipe that follows…

Lemon rice | Chitranna

Lemon Rice or Chitranna (Kannada) is a South Indian dish in which rice (usually leftover) is flavored with lemon and turmeric. Peanuts can be added for additional texture.

Method:

Heat oil in a kadhai and add the mustard seeds to itAfter they splutter, add the peanuts and fry until the peanuts are slightly brown.Add the slit green chillies and curry leaves.Add the turmeric powder and lime juiceAdd the rice and salt and mix well until the rice is coated with the turmeric powderCook for 1-2 mins while stirringGarnish with desiccated coconut and chopped coriander leaves

Most of the kids in my class in primary section always brought biscuits or bread jam for lunch. If my mom mistakenly packed any of those for my lunch, she'd find a grumpy kid in the evening. I had a standard lunch for 4 years and I hated when my mom tried to add variety to it. My lunch everyday had to be chapati chutney pudi tuppa (Chapati spread with ghee/clarified butter and chutney pudi and rolled). I loved it so much and so did my teacher. I still remember when she held my lunch for the whole class to see and appreciated it as it was healthy. Yesterday was the first time I made (rather watched mommy make :P) chutney pudi. Until then I did not even know the ingredients and measurements. It was just made last night, but it has already been eaten with chapati, bread and dosa :D...

I made masala puri for dinner (recipe follows) and had no mixture at home to go with it. So instead of venturing out in the rainy Bangalore night to go buy mixture, I decided to just make something by myself at home. I'd never made it before, but the avalakki mixture seemed to be very simple to make. So I did give it a try and as I had expected, it is very easy to make. It was perfectly crispy and went along well with the masala puri.